A partnership with global supply chain company Woodland Group has enabled Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA (‘Ball’) to benefit from an 82% reduction of emissions for its inbound supply chain to the UK via the main deep seaports between March 2021 and September 2022. Global manufacturer Ball makes infinitely recyclable aluminium beverage cans with 25 plants in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia alone.
With its Doncaster facility strategically located next to the iPort rail hub, Woodland Group initiated a new rail route for Ball within the transport chain, achieving substantial carbon reduction savings. The project also meant the freight trucking system ran more efficiently, resulting in less demurrage penalties for the late collection of containers and goods compared to the previous year.
Woodland Group’s rail initiative allowed the company to reduce Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA’s inland carbon footprint by 886 tonnes of carbon across 1442 FEU’s (forty-foot equivalent containers) or 4.35 times less than if all the containers travelled by road.
Woodland also installed motion sensing & lux-level detection LED lighting at Ball’s Doncaster site, delivering a 70% reduction in cost and energy consumption. The light fittings are now limited to deliver 90% of maximum brightness, achieving energy reduction and improving the longevity of the fittings.
Ball, the world’s leading supplier of innovative, sustainable aluminium packaging solutions for beverage, personal care, and household products, has long been committed to sustainability goals and KPIs, with its climate change plan approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
In 2021, Ball managed to use 100% renewable energy for its beverage packaging business operations in Europe. Ball is also seeking to increase recycled content in aluminium cans, the world’s most recycled beverage containers, to 85% by 2030, avoiding 95% of the emissions associated with using virgin metal.
Woodland Group and Ball forged a partnership in February 2021, seeking to pioneer carbon-conscious supply chain projects and to encourage the development of solutions that will drive down emissions, right across the fulfilment value chain.
Woodland Group used its carbon calculator tool to deliver detailed intermodal transport chain emissions reports across timelines, enabling the two companies to identify precisely where they could achieve reductions to support Ball’s vision.
Jack Harrison, Logistics Development Manager for Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA commented:
“We are actively finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint by moving to intermodal solutions and alternative fuels across EMEA. This is a great step forward to ensure our supply chain offers a competitive advantage to our customer base by offering a smarter and greener supply chain. This is credit to our partnership with Woodland Group and we look forward to future initiatives that can deliver even greater value.”
Luke Fermor, Head of Fulfilment for Woodland Group, added:
“Having the opportunity to work closely with Ball Beverage Packaging on driving carbon conscious initiatives through the supply chain has been a vital component to our partnership. Achieving 82% reduction on emissions on inland freight so far as a result is credit to our collective teams’ commitment, innovative thinking, and collaborative approach, and we’re excited to build on this further. Working with clients like Ball is a real pleasure and seeing shared vision and sustainability objectives create tangible change is incredibly encouraging for us and our industry’s future. Together we are already looking at new objectives for future development of carbon-conscious solutions that create opportunity and deliver sustainable supply chains.”
